Organization of the work of a coach and psychologist in preparation for competitions
The goal of the coach and psychologist in general psychological training is to study the athlete's psychological qualities and their development. The coach in the process of work selects methods for their education.
So, the coach finds out that during the competition the athlete does not show the results achieved in training, because he is not confident in his abilities.
This weakness in the manifestation of willpower can have various reasons. To choose a method for eliminating a deficiency, it is necessary to know exactly the cause of its occurrence. Then measures are developed to eliminate the specified deficiency. The athlete must be perfectly prepared in physical, technical and tactical terms. And then you can select methods for eliminating this specific deficiency-uncertainty.
It is absolutely necessary for the athlete to be fully informed about his future rivals, he must know both their weaknesses and strengths well. At the last competitions, the athlete must perform special exercises that give self-confidence.
Special attention should be paid to the formation of the athlete's emotional state. The emotional state of an athlete in the period immediately preceding the competition is called the pre-start state or, as athletes say, “burning” before the fight. Pre-start “crazy” is especially pronounced in 18-year-old athletes. However, the coach, given the age characteristics, should not ignore the individual characteristics of the athletes. The experience of sports activities is important here. Of two athletes of the same age, one may have significant experience in sports activities, as a result of which he develops the ability to control himself during large-scale competitions, and this has a positive effect on his results. Another athlete of the same age may not have experience in fighting and fall into a difficult pre-start state before large-scale competitions.
The influence of the coach
A coach who knows his student well can determine changes in his emotional sphere by external signs of behavior. If a young man who is always lively in the presence of coaches becomes withdrawn, it means that he is in a state of severe mental stress related to his performance at the upcoming competitions. The coach should imperceptibly bring his charge out of these states, switch his attention to something else.
One of the coach's tasks in psychological preparation is to prevent mental overexertion on the eve of the upcoming competition. In some cases, issues related to upcoming competitions should be discussed with the team and in a personal conversation. The coach should help the athlete assess his own strengths and the strengths of his opponent, at the same time the coach should slightly change the training regimen.
In the process of competition, especially when the competition lasts for days, or even weeks, psychological adjustment is important. The psychological adjustment of an athlete to the competition is a very complex process that occurs systematically by the coach, according to a pre-developed plan and is important, sometimes even decisive, for achieving success in competitions.
In this process, an important role belongs not only to athletes, coaches and the team, but also to the psychologist, through joint efforts of which it is possible to achieve the correct and necessary psychological preparation and ensure success in future competitions.
Influence of a psychologist
A psychologist who is new to working with a team of athletes often faces a number of difficulties. They arise because the psychologist, as a rule, cannot be present in the team throughout the entire training of athletes. However, if he works with them for a long time, it is very difficult for him to reconcile his activities with the daily training process, to make his work an organic part of it.
A real and serious assistant to a psychologist should be a coach who works directly in the team. A coach is a teacher who helps athletes master, consolidate and improve the basics of sportsmanship, and an educator, and therefore cannot but be a psychologist.
He must systematically and purposefully manage the psychological training of athletes, consistently educate them in the ability to control themselves, apply individually significant methods of self-regulation of the mental (stress) state, introduce them to a special mental state in which physical and technical capabilities are most fully realized.
Therefore, the main task of a professional psychologist is to be needed primarily by the coach: to advise him on all issues of the psychological preparation of athletes, to perform the work that the coach himself cannot perform (for example, to correct unsatisfactory mental (stress) states, consistently, from methodically clear positions, to cultivate in individual athletes the ability to self-control and regulation, to promptly train them to perform specific activities, to develop, test and implement promising methods of psychoregulation in the practice of the work of coaches and team doctors).
All this work should be comprehensive. It is very important that the coach and doctor understand the specific purposes of all activities performed or planned by the psychologist, and take an active part in them. In addition, it is necessary to systematically summarize this joint activity and set new goals and objectives.